Current datalink technologies use centralized ground stations that coordinate and manage resources, frequencies, and bandwidth for end nodes within the ground station's range of control for data transmission and reception from the centralized ground stations. Yet, in oceanic regions, as it is difficult to install ground stations, satellite links are used for communicating with vehicles. However, satellite based service can be expensive and is also subject to disadvantages for air-to-air broadcast services as satellite networks do not support the direct end node to end node broadcasts that are used for airborne surveillance applications. Satellite broadcasts generally broadcast in a single direction, i.e. from end notes to satellites and then to other end nodes.
In typical satellite communications between an end node and a ground station, packets are sent to a ground station for processing and routing. When communicating through a satellite, an end node broadcasts a packet to the satellite and the satellite downlinks the packet to the ground station for processing. The ground station then sends an uplink message to the satellite for broadcasting over a region. Due to the relaying of messages through the satellite, there is a considerable amount of bandwidth loss and additional latency in communications due to the multiple transmissions of the same information across different network nodes.